Vigil In The Rain 

Jose Raúl Cruz, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in Farmers Branch, near Dallas, in March of 2016. On the way to an open mic event, I drove past the candlelight vigil his family and friends were holding. It was as close as I’d ever been to the senseless gun violence that plagues our country. 

 

I can see the dark stained pavement; the rain pounds down; it don’t wash clean 

A crowd of people just staring, feels like they’re looking right at me 

I just keep on driving, wipers’ rhythm the only sound 

I notice all those candles, somehow still burning, there on the ground 

 

I’d read the story in the paper, early this week 

Facts, names and places - didn’t mean that much to me 

Now, seeing all those faces, feel my eyes kinda burn 

I turn on some distraction; music starts to play; my mind just churns 

 

It just seems so pointless, that vigil in the rain 

It’s not like those candles will bring him back again 

We already know the story - a boy killed by some hothead with a gun 

So they stand out on that corner and bleed on everyone 

 

I reach my destination - after work meet-up, well underway 

They’re all drinking and talking; me, ain’t got much to say 

So I stare out the window, no reason to pretend 

My mind keeps drifting back there, to those haunted faces in the wind 

 

The paper said he was doing something foolish; I’d done as much in my youth 

I told myself “there but for fortune”, but I’m not sure those words hold much truth 

 

I know it must feel pointless, that vigil in the rain 

It’s not like those candles will bring him back again 

But all those broken faces, they’re rooted in my brain 

So too, that kid, his story, that vigil in the rain 

That vigil in the rain